A Bit More Detail

• I entirely agree with the argument of Aluki Kotierk, writing at MacLean's, who thinks the Inuit of Nunavut have been entirely too passive, too nice, in letting Inuktitut get marginalized. Making it a central feature in education is the least that can be done. (Québec-style language policies work.)


• Although ostensibly a thriving language in many domains of life, the marginalization of the Icelandic language in the online world could be an existential threat. The Guardian reports.


• As part of a bid to keep alive Ladino, traditional language of the Sephardic Jews, Spain has extended to the language official status including support and funding. Ha'aretz reports.


• A new set of policies of Spain aiming at promoting the Spanish language have been criticized by some in Hispanic American states, who call the Spanish moves excessively unilateral. El Pais reports.


• isiXhosa, the language of the Xhosa people of South Africa, is getting huge international attention thanks to its inclusion in Black Panther. The Toronto Star reports.

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[T]iny Iceland, still reeling from the aftershocks of the devastating collapse of its banks in 2008, is looking longingly to the loonie as the salvation from wild economic gyrations and suffocating capital controls.

And for the first time, the Canadian government says it’s open to discussing the idea.

In brief remarks to be delivered Saturday in Reykjavik, Canadian ambassador Alan Bones will tell Icelanders that if they truly want the Canadian dollar, Canada is ready to talk.

But he will warn Icelanders that unilaterally adopting the loonie comes with significant risk, including complete loss of control over their monetary policy because the Bank of Canada makes decisions only for Canadians and the Canadian economy. He’ll caution, for example, that giving up the krona in favour of the Canadian dollar (CAD/USD-I1.01-0.004-0.36%) will leave the country with few levers, short of layoffs, to counter financial shocks and fluctuations in the loonie.

[. . .]

There’s a compelling economic case why Iceland would want to adopt the Canadian dollar. It offers the tantalizing prospect of a stable, liquid currency that roughly tracks global commodity prices, nicely matching Iceland’s own economy, which is dependent on fish and aluminum exports.

There’s also a more sentimental reason.

“The average person looks at it this way: Canada is a younger version of the U.S. Canada has more natural resources than the U.S., it’s less developed, has more land, lots of water,” explained Heidar Gudjonsson, an economist and chairman of the Research Center for Social and Economic Studies, Iceland’s largest think tank.

“And Canada thinks about the Arctic.”

In a recent Gallup poll, seven out of 10 Icelanders said they would happily dump their volatile and fragile krona for another currency. And their favoured alternative is the Canadian dollar, easily outscoring the U.S. dollar, the euro and the Norwegian krona.

Iceland is also in a bind. The country imposed strict currency controls after its spectacular banking collapse in 2008. Foreign-exchange transactions are capped 350,000 kronas (about $3,000). A major downside of those controls is that foreign investors can’t repatriate their profits, making Iceland an unattractive place to do business.

Those capital controls are slated to come off next year. And many experts fear a return to the wild swings of the past -- in inflation, lending rates and the currency itself. Iceland is the smallest country in the world still clinging to its own currency and monetary policy. The krona soared nearly 90 per cent between 2001 and 2007, only to crash 92 per cent after the financial crisis in 2008.

The official government plan is to go to the euro. Iceland has applied to join the European Union and eventually the euro zone. But that’s not looking like a very attractive option these days. And formal entry could take a decade, experts said.

The other options are to peg the krona to another currency, such as the yen, greenback or euro.

• AFP reports that the Inuit are upset that they've not been included as participants in an upcoming conference of Arctic foreign ministers.


• The Toronto Star announces that despite recent regulations limiting the number of bars in the neighbourhood, Ossington Avenue's art scene is still going.


• Wired speculates on Google's future in China, everything from full collaboration to exiting the country altogether.


• This Associated Press article distinguishes between Eurozone countries (like France and Germany) with dynamic and diversified economies, and the PIGS which remain depressed and--at least in Spain's case--might face a lost decade.


• Europeans are, indeed, starting to wonder how a country could leave the Eurozone (answer: not without financial collapse). The threat may be used to justify a closer fiscal union of the currency bloc.


• The Turkish president threatened to expel the hundred thousand Armenian migrants estimated to be in Turkey if Armenians continue to push for recognition of the Armenian genocide.


• Britain, it appears, is being pointed to Canada as an example of what might happen if the country gets a hung parliament (presumably with the Liberal Democrats increasing their share.)


• Diplomats suggest that Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovich might have the pull and credibility with Russia and Ukraine's Russophones necessary to move towards the European Union and consolidate the nation-state.


• Great. Apparently there are entire lakes of methane-producing bacteria) beneath the Antarctic ice, jsut waiting to surface.


• In Gatineau, the Francophone suburb of ottawa on the Québec side of the Ottawa River, a growing number of immigrants is starting to settle in.


• Jeff Rubin makes the point that the Canadian dollar is now a petrocurrency, and that this petrocurrency is seriously hurting manufacturing in central Canada and, indeed, most of the rest of the country save Alberta.


• A Canadian astronomer took a picture of the Soviet Lunokhod-2 unmanned moon rover, on the Moon.


• Privatize the TTC, one Toronto Life writer asks? Why not?


• The Pacific Mall, an Asian-themed mall located just north of Toronto, hopes to double its size.

A clearcut slash ripped straight through the boreal forest and entered the Mackenzie River before emerging to disappear into the southern horizon — the prep-work outline for a 1,200-kilometre pathway set to become Canada’s largest-ever construction project.

This is the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline route, connecting the motherlode of Arctic gas deposits in the Beaufort Sea to the northern Alberta gas dissemination network.

But no pipeline equals no pipedream — and the $16-billion megaproject to create another energy frontier and give aboriginal communities an economic lifeline is now apparently dead.

[Minister of the Environment Jim] Prentice was still optimistic about the project just four months ago, talking of signing off on lingering aboriginal claims and getting the sluggish project review committee’s report before securing a federal sign-off for participating in the project.

But unless last week’s priorities committee’s nixing of any federal role in the project is overturned by a full Prime Minister Stephen Harper cabinet, the best, if not only, hope for Arctic and aboriginal economic stimulus is gone.

[. . .]

One top source in Natural Resources raises the ‘I’m not dead yet’ Monty Python skit to suggest there’s lingering life in the project, although that analogy ends badly for the bleating actor, who is quickly put out of his misery by a whack on the head.

Mr. Prentice did emerge on Tuesday to muddy the waters a bit, shrugging it off as a private-sector investment while insisting the “proponents continue to assess the fiscal framework put forward previously by the federal government.”

[. . .]

If, or when, the project dies, shock waves will be felt up and down a Mackenzie Valley where aboriginal enterprise had hoped to buy a one-third stake in the project amid giddy predictions they would eventually pocket annual dividends of more than $100-million.

Huge camps, some sleeping thousands of construction workers, were planned along the route as the pipeline snaked down a booming valley.  

But the risk-sharing role of the federal government, exchanging a taxpayer’s investment of unknown size for a revenue slice linked to the price of natural gas, has been increasingly iffy for years.

The Canadian Forces have come under fire in an internal report highly critical of military leaders' lack of interest in an Arctic sovereignty protection exercise last August.

Defending Arctic sovereignty is supposed to be a major priority under goals the Harper government set when it took office in February, 2006.

The report on Operation Nanook, obtained by The Globe and Mail under the Access to Information law, was written by a Forces directorate that helped organize the August, 2007, Arctic exercise.

It says Canadian military leaders didn't place a high enough priority on the operation, and it singles out for criticism Canada Command, the military organization given the task of defending this country.

[. . .]

Operation Nanook, which took place between Aug. 7 and 17 last year, is the biggest such annual exercise in the Arctic. Last year's scenarios included intercepting drug smugglers and responding to a ship's oil spill.

The report was critical of the RCMP's V Division in Nunavut for failing to devote sufficient effort to planning and staging the exercise, and blamed the Mounties' "lack of engagement" in part for problems with how things unfolded. Another hindrance was fog.

"Regrettably, V Division of the RCMP, for a number of valid reasons, tends to view ... Nanook as a distraction rather than an opportunity," it said. The report did not explain why the Mounties might lack enthusiasm for Nanook.

An RCMP spokesman blamed lower-than-normal staffing across Nunavut last August. "Human resources levels across the Division were 25 per cent below normal and ongoing operational issues and day-to-day community policing needs took precedence over the exercise," Corporal Greg Cox said.

"Senior RCMP officials were aware of the exercise and co-operated with DND and other exercise officials as much as possible."